Black Rage
by TheImperious
Summary: I cry when angels deserve to die.


_The Black Rage overcomes the Blood Angel as the memories and consciousness of Sanguinius intrude upon his mind, and dire events ten thousand years old flood into the present. A warrior overcome with the Black Rage appears half mad with fury; he is unable to distinguish past from present and does not recognise his comrades. He may believe he is Sanguinius upon the eve of his destruction, and the bloody battles of the Horus Heresy are raging all around him._

_-Codex: Blood Angels  
_

* * *

With a powerful stroke of is wings Sanguinius leapt down towards the clouds.

No that wasn't right. There were no wings at his back. He was strapped into a jump pack.

But Sanguinius could feel the wind rushing through his snowy feathers. A cloud kissed his cheek with drops of dew as he sailed towards the earth. Below him marched a sea of daemons, laying waste to all the Emperor had built. Sanguinius fell from the heavens like a shooting star. As the ground raced up to meet him, the arch-angel pulled his ruby blade from his side.

_No_. No he was holding a chainsword.

With the force of a lighting strike Sanguinius struck down into the mob. Daemons wailed and scattered before him. With all his grace and fury Sanguinius banished them from reality scores at a time. Their cursed warpflesh burst into smoke and ash as the singing long sword cut a whirlwind through them. A scornful nightmare of a creature bit down on Sanguinius' vambrace. Its needle teeth ripped at the gold as Sanguinius took the thing by the jaw and wrenched its neck.

_No damn it. By the grail no!_ There were no daemons. But there were Tyrannid. He was holding the limp body of a gaunt.

Sanguinius cast the body away and swooped back into the maelstrom of alien teeth and talons.

_No! I am not my father!_ _I am Saleh!_ He fought to hold on to his name. But his mind would not obey. It kept showing him the struggle of his primarch from all those ages ago. The rage in Saleh's head had blossomed into a pain unlike anything he'd ever known. Colours and sounds separated by ten-thousand years swirled together. Landscapes and silhouettes flickered in and out of existence. But Saleh fought on. He was a Flesh Tearer, he was made to fight on.

In a blink the tyrannid were gone and the daemons had returned. Saleh hacked away at them mercilessly. The monsters roared a horrible, deafening noise at him. Saleh showed his fangs and roared back. A daemon sliced at the back of his leg tripping him to the ground.

Sanguinius spun on one knee, swinging his sword through the tyrannid brood around him. The aliens died in heaps at his feet, but more pressed in from every direction. The teaming brood hissed and spat venom at the golden angel. Sanguinius spread his fiery wings and jumped into the sky.

"No!" Saleh cried, remembering himself.

The Flesh Tearer flew through the rain. Saleh could hear his twin hearts pounding away. His hands trembled with a fever. His head throbbed with pain and the air stung his eyes. He was in agony. Saleh was looking for something, but he couldn't remember what. Somewhere beyond the pain in the center of his mind an idea floated to his consciousness, maybe he had been looking for someone, but who? With uncertainty clouding his mind, Saleh came crashing down into the fray once more.

Now traitor marines assailed him. Bolt-weapons barked, chainswords roared, and blasphemers howled. In a flash Sanguinius cut a marine in twain. Vaulting over the fallen, the angel parried and slashed his way through the crowd of betrayers. These traitor marines were just trying to slow him down. He had to reach the bridge. He had to face his brother once more, to make him end this madness and carnage. Sanguinius knew his brother would not hear him. Even still, he needed to go.

A traitor's blade stabbed into Sanguinius' back.

Saleh whinced as he yanked a thrashing ripper from his back. He threw the hateful worm to the ground and squished it under foot. Razor talons pierced his crimson armor down to the flesh. Saleh blasted the alien off his shoulder. But more talons sunk into him and dragged him to the blood soaked earth. The smell of death was all around him. Saleh looked up to meet his end with a snarl. But he didn't see the hoard. Rather, he saw his golden father shining down on him. With a small wave of his hand Sanguinius beckoned his son to rise. Saleh's muscles ached. His mind was so weary. This was his chance. He could sleep forever if he wanted to. No one would blame him, no one would miss him.

_Not yet._

Saleh rose, pushing up against the dozen talons. The razor sharp bones sliced every corner of his armor, drawing blood from every limb. His bolt pistol spit fire into the aliens. His chainsword whirled about, gorging itself on tyrannid.

An ear piercing shriek rang up and the sea of teeth and claws parted for a moment. There it was, the someone Saleh was looking for. It towered over him and the other monsters. With a burst from his fiery wings Saleh charged for the commander of the tyrannid swarm. _Tyranicus gladius primus_, the Warrior Prime was his to slay.

His eyes began to shake. Shadows licked at the edge of his flickering vision. But he hurled himself at the foe with the zeal of a hundred men.

Ka'bandha, the daemon lord of murder, howled doom at Sanguinius. It raised its inky, shadow-flesh wings to the rainy sky. With a crack of his infernal whip the red daemon struck out at the angel.

A lash of writhing muscle and tendons snapped itself around Saleh's wrist.

Sanguinius pulled against the whip, but Ka'bandha yanked him forward. A tremendous axe sailed down to cleave the golden angel apart. Sanguinius spun inside the blow, while his blade cut through the bloodthirster's warpflesh.

The Prime hissed as Saleh's chainsword gnashed through the alien flesh-whip. It kicked him back with a great hoof and brandished a sword grown from bone. Saleh rolled to his feet with his sword drawn back at the ready.

His mind faltered again and with it his vision. He didn't lose sight of the adversary. But his eyes reduced the opponent to a smear of darkness. A face pressed forward through the hazy form. Pale colour filled its cheeks and the eyes had turned red with malice. _Horus, what have you done?_

The great betrayer laughed at Sanguinius. His mace ripped through the air. Sanguinius turned his brother's strike aside. The golden angel tried to press an attack, but the lord in black countered. With a sweep of his talons Horus cut open a scar along Sanguinius' cheek. The warmaster laughed once again. The dark mace cracked into Sanguinius' body.

Sanguinius stumbled. Ka'bandha's whip seized his legs in a bone crushing vice. The red daemon lord of hate leapt upon the wounded angel.

The Warrior Prime drove its sword deep into Saleh's chest.

Sanguinius was broken at the feet of Ka'bandha, and at the feat of Horus. Saleh could only watch as his father lay helpless. Franticly Saleh fought through his waking nightmare, trying to find some way to save the archangel. But he too was helpless. Pain crippled his body, and anguish crushed his heart.

"You should have been the best of us!" Saleh shouted.

The bodies of the Warrior Prime, Ka'bandha, and Horus were over laid upon each other. They loomed over the fallen angel savoring the moment of their victory. Sanguinius knew he was to die here. His soul was ready for the end. But Saleh was not ready to let his father go, not yet. He would be damned before he let these fiends take Sanguinius away again.

"You shall NOT!"

With a booming war cry Saleh burst from the ground. His jump pack singed the earth as he rose. With all his anger Saleh thrashed the vision of the warmaster and daemon. Sanguinius' ruby blade was in his hands. It sailed through the enemies' flesh and brought them low. Over and under, he wailed on his father's adversaries, red and black alike. Their blood sprayed over his face. Saleh snarled and spittle frothed between his fangs. They needed to pay. Destroying them here wouldn't be enough, but it was all he had.

"GIVE HIM BACK!"

Saleh hacked and hacked and hacked at the limp body before him. He roared an empty cry at the thing. A gentle hand fell on his shoulder. Saleh turned ready to strike, but he found Sanguinius looking down on him once again. It wasn't his father, not really. Saleh tried to tell himself he was just mad. But he wanted it to be real more than anything. And then the pain of reality made him want to die. Sanguinius reached out to touch Saleh's head. Saleh could feel the warmth from his father's hand. A tear rolled over Saleh's blood stained cheek.

Saleh shook his head. The vision of Sanguinius vanished. Behind him was the mangled corpse of the Warrior Prime. The daemons, _no_, the tyrannid were fleeing. Other Blood Angels, _no Flesh Tearers_, were chasing them down in the fields. He had struck the head form the tyrannid swarm. The day was nearly won.

Saleh tried to stand, but every muscle was on fire. Some of his bones were broken. He was still bleeding profusely from a severed artery. Saleh didn't stop to think about it though. His eyes only saw more daemons trying to scamper away. He would have to fight on. With a stroke of his wings he took off into the sky once more.

* * *

**Trust in my self-righteous suicide. **


End file.
